


To Have and to Hold

by bunilicious



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: All Aboard, Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Alternate Universe - Medieval, Arranged Marriage, Ben Solo is a Norman Baron, Ben is a thicc boi, Bossy Rey, Devoted Reylo, Domestic Fluff, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Hair Brushing, Loss of Virginity, Penis Size, Rey is his Anglo-Saxon Bride, Size Kink, Smut, Stretching, Thirsty Rey, Virgin Ben Solo, Virgin Rey, baths, domestic reylo, large tubs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-06-13 03:11:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15354933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bunilicious/pseuds/bunilicious
Summary: “Your husband is gravely injured, my lady.”The envoy’s words should have pleased Lady Rey. After all, her husband was one of the dreaded Norman barons who invaded her beloved country and claimed the lands in the name of the bastard who now called himself king. Ben Solo had stormed her uncle’s keep, killed all the men who opposed their new conquerors, and claimed the stronghold for his own.He took the keep, he took the surrounding lands and, at the new king’s orders, took Rey to wife.Rey should have hated him. But, in the six months following their hasty and undesirable marriage, Rey found that hatred for her new husband was the furthest emotion from her heart and mind.-----A REYLO MEDIEVAL AU





	1. Chapter One

 

 

“Your husband is gravely injured, my lady.”

 

The envoy’s words should have pleased Lady Rey. After all, her husband was one of the dreaded Norman barons who invaded her beloved country and claimed the lands in the name of the bastard who now called himself king. Ben Solo had stormed her uncle’s keep, killed all the men who opposed their new conquerors, and claimed the stronghold for his own.

 

He took the keep, he took the surrounding lands and, at the new king’s orders, took Rey to wife.

 

Rey should have hated him. Her family home and lands would be his to command. Her servants would be his to lord over as he saw fit.

 

 _She_ would be his.

 

Rey should have hated him. Most of the woman she was acquainted with loathed their new and monstrous Norman husbands. But, in the six months following their hasty and undesirable marriage, Rey found that hatred for her new husband was the furthest emotion from her heart and mind.

 

She remembered how, on their wedding day, her husband had informed her that she would be the one to decide when to consummate their marriage. Naturally, she had laughed in his face and proclaimed he would never have her, then mounted his horse unaided and galloped back to the keep, leaving her husband behind in a trail of dust to walk the eight miles that stood between the church and his new stronghold.

 

“He was conscious when I departed,” the envoy told her when Rey sat down on one of the chairs in the sitting room, her hands gripping the armrest as she registered the news of Ben’s injury in battle. “He asked me to tell you, my lady, that he would come back to you.”

 

It was that final promise which kept Rey’s hope alive for an entire fortnight, as she prayed every night for her new husband to return to her in one piece.  

 

As she prayed and waited, Rey’s thoughts often strayed to the day her husband had departed for the north to quell a small rebellion organized by a disgruntled minor baron.

 

“I trust your judgement,” Ben had told her that morning before riding away to fight in the name of King William.

 

They stood in the library, pouring over the same maps of England she had first shown him after their wedding day. He’d asked for her help then, so that he could familiarize himself with the lands he was responsible for. The request had surprised Rey in that moment, assuming her husband, like all the other Norman barons she’d seen, would simply take loyalty for granted. She had certainly never heard of a husband who held his wife’s counsel in such high regard.

 

And, even on the day of his sudden departure, Ben continued to surprise her.

 

“I have never done this before and you know that,” she had told him as she traced the course of a river with her fingers. The paper was smooth when she touched it, a bit like how she imagined Ben’s luscious raven locks would feel if she ever mustered the courage to run her hands through them. “What you ask of me is a task befitting a lord.”

 

Looking over the dinner menu, was a task expected of a Norman lord’s wife. Deciding if Ben was going to have veal or lamb stew for dinner did not seem like a suspicious and unusual task. Overseeing the provisions delivered to the keep and double checking the household accounts were perhaps less ordinary tasks, but Rey accepted them nonetheless because she hated being idle, and she secretly appreciated her husband’s efforts to include her in running the estate.

 

But, in the weeks following their marriage, everything had changed to the point where she lunched with Ben’s vassals in his stead, assuaging any worries they might have regarding their Norman conquerors. For a woman to do such a thing, an Anglo-Saxon woman married to her Norman conqueror at that, was surely unheard of. Certainly, Rey had mused many times, none of the ladies she was acquainted with, who had all been married off to Norman lords after the conquest, enjoyed this much freedom.

 

And now, Ben expected her to act on his behalf in every aspect of running the estate, including the delicate military and political matters that required his attention. His trust in her, the woman whose house and lands had been given to the man who had conquered them, staggered Rey.

 

She gazed at him in the privacy of the library, all armored as if prepared to do battle in two seconds instead of two days. What he thought of her doubts, she could not tell. His brown eyes betrayed no emotion in that moment, doubtless thinking of the fighting that awaited him in the north.

 

She knew she was supposed to hate her husband and his Norman horde of savages, but her traitorous heart still worried for his safety.

 

The safety of a monster she was supposed to hate.

 

Yet, even with his dark armor and imposing height, she was not afraid of him, as she had showed him many times before. And, strangely, Ben seemed to delight in that. He’d taken such pleasure in vexing her in their first weeks of marriage, concocting the most ridiculous ideas to administer the land he’d conquered from her family, waiting for her to contradict him before changing his mind seconds later and doing exactly what she advised.

 

Her husband, Rey surmised, was a delightfully strange man.

 

“Will you be all right?” she had asked him on the day of his departure north. He turned to look at her, offering Rey an unimpeded view of the broad expanse of his chest, covered as it was by his heavy black armor. Since the moment she’d caught a good glimpse of him without his frightening helmet, she often wondered what the seemingly endless layers of armor concealed.

 

He stood silent for one moment and clenched his right fist before relaxing it once more. He simply nodded, as if speaking seemed too much in that moment.

 

“You could ask me to come north with you,” she suggested.

 

He shook his head. “I wish I could,” he told her, and his voice seemed pained, like that of a man recovering from a long illness. It always puzzled her how Ben could have the build of a seasoned warrior… and the voice of a sensitive poet.

 

She gave him a smile. “So, you will keep me locked here forever, my lord? Like a princess in a tower?”

 

The corners of his mouth lifted ever so slightly. “Nobody could mistake you for a defenseless maiden, Rey.”

 

“Nobody could mistake me for a princess either,” she pointed out.

 

He looked down and placed a gloved hand on the table. He always wore gloves, Rey noticed, gazing at his right hand. His long fingers rested on the map, on the image of the keep she’d once called home before the Normans had conquered their lands, the image she now compared to a tower designed to isolate and imprison.

 

“Nobody will challenge your authority,” he assured her. “This keep is your home and that will never change.”

 

He then turned to face her again, his soulful eyes the color of the richest soil. Not looking but seeing. Her cheeks heated up under his searching gaze.

 

“This can be your home, Rey. If you want it to be.”

 

She swallowed. “How can this be my home, if your King William took it from me and gave it to you?”

 

“Is that so?” Ben had challenged her then, but his voice soothed her like the summer wind. “Were you truly the mistress of your uncle’s house?”

 

Rey lowered her eyes, the memories of Unkar Plutt’s mistreatment still fresh in her mind. The keep should have been her home, passed down to her from the father who had perished before she had learned to walk, but Plutt had taken it from her, treating her as a servant instead of an heiress.

 

“And am I the mistress of this keep now?” she inquired, mesmerized by how her husband’s right eye twitched whenever he was overcome by an emotion she could not describe.

 

He breathed deeply. “Of this keep and of so much more.”

 

Confused by his words, she turned her gaze away, focusing on the large river she had been tracing just moments ago. The long river flowed freely, not far away from the village nestled underneath the hill on which the keep stood.

 

“I am your prisoner,” she told him. “You conquered this keep and married me because your king decreed it.”

 

“No,” he said.

 

After what had felt like an eternity, she finished tracing the river with her right fingers, watching as it spilled into the sea.

 

“Look at me, Rey,” he commanded, but his voice was soft like that of a lover. “Please.”

 

At the gentle sound of voice, Rey looked up, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. She met his own gaze, searching yet heated, and with her other hand, Rey gripped a fold of her heavy dress.

 

“This marriage was not my choice either,” he continued. “I cannot stand here and lie to your face. Pretend that when the King ordered me to strike down your rebelling uncle, my thoughts strayed to matrimony. I knew nothing of your existence then.”

 

She looked back at the map, noticing how Ben’s fingers were moving, tracing the river she had analyzed so thoroughly just minutes ago.

 

“I simply did my duty to my king,” he said after a brief pause. “I married you because he decreed it. Because he needed to establish his rule and because you came with the keep and lands he bestowed upon me for my service.”

 

Ben’s words did not surprise her, for she knew they were the truth. Her husband, she had learned shortly after their marriage, was honest to a fault. Yet, unbidden, a strange ache pierced through her.

 

His gloved hand moved down the map with intent, pausing just inches next to her own hand, so small in comparison to his. It was a thankful distraction which allowed her not to dwell on thoughts she could not explain.

 

“But I do not regret marrying you, Rey.” His gloved fingers touched the tips of her own, and she shivered at the first touch they shared since uttering their marriage vows several months ago on that cold winter morning. “You are not my prisoner.”

 

She looked up. His gaze bore into hers like a burning pyre

 

“Rey, I –”

 

Someone knocked at the door.

 

Groaning, her husband removed his hand as if she had burned him, and whatever had transpired between them vanished in a rush, as he straightened his back and assumed his role.

 

Ben Solo. The fearsome Norman baron. Advisor and close friend to King William.  

 

“Come in,” Ben ordered, his tone impassive.

 

A servant entered and bowed. “The horses are ready, my lord.”

 

Ben nodded and turned to her. As if replicating his stance, Rey stood straight, yet willing her tears away for one more minute.

 

“Everything I have is yours.” He bowed then, in his perfunctory manner, and in response she managed a wobbly courtesy.

 

“Safe travels, husband,” she told him in what she hoped was a matching emotionless and formal voice.

 

Ben nodded again, as if satisfied with her well-wishes. He then bowed again, for a reason she did not understand, and left. The servant followed him out, closing the tall library door behind them.

 

Alone, Rey finally let her tears flow.

 

She cried, not because she was upset that he had not brought her with him to stifle a bloody northern rebellion. She certainly did not cry because he had left her behind with an incredible responsibility to shoulder. And she did not cry because she felt her status made her unworthy of such a privilege.      

 

She cried because she had fallen in love with her husband. Because the man she loved had trusted her enough to grant her his powers. And she cried because, with Ben’s departure a reality, for the first time she feared that he would never return to her.

 

 

~*~

 

 

Rey sprinted out the main entrance and into the inner courtyard the moment she saw Ben’s carriage approach the keep in the distance.

 

Though she could only glimpse it from afar, Rey could tell it was a carriage befitting a great Norman lord, drawn by four black horses and surrounded by her husband’s knights astride their own steeds. However, Rey knew her husband well, and she knew his injuries would not prevent him from choosing the comfort of the carriage over riding his mare. They had ridden enough together in the six months they were married to know that only the greatest of injuries would deter him from mounting his horse to return to her.

 

And, looking at the imposing figure clad in black who led the entire procession, Rey chastised herself for ever doubting her husband.

 

She should have known Ben would be true to his word.

 

As she stood in the inner courtyard, Rey craned her neck to catch a better view of the riders. Ben rode in front, in all his menacing glory, dressed in his customary black armor and with a strong grip on the horse’s harness. Her heart swelled with joy as she watched him lead the knights atop his mare.

 

She smoothed the fabric of the new dress she commissioned for the occasion, a deep blue bliaut lined with wool, covered by a black mantle embroidered with gold thread in swirling patterns. She smoothed her hair, which her handmaids had braided early in the morning in a long plait bound with a matching blue ribbon. For the first time since her marriage, Rey considered adopting a more elaborate hairstyle, as she was told was the custom at court, but she did not want to look too ostentatious.

 

Led by the envoy, who had ridden a full day ahead to inform Rey of her husband’s arrival, the castle staff joined her, standing in rows by her side to welcome back their lord. Rey looked around to make sure everyone was accounted for, then turned to gaze at the path in front of her, as Ben’s convoy approached them with urgency. The guards lowered the second drawbridge, and as Ben’s imposing frame came into perfect view, Rey’s eyes focused directly on him, somehow knowing that, even with his helmet on, his eyes were on her as well.

 

She could not suppress a wide grin from spreading all over her face, thinking of all she had accomplished in his absence, knowing he would be delighted by the changes she had made. But, most importantly, she smiled knowing that at last he would soon be standing in front of her, and she would not miss him any longer.

 

Rey licked her lips in anticipation. Despite how she longed for his return, she was grateful for the time he had allowed her to spend by herself. She had cleared her thoughts, and through the tears and the challenging administrative work of the past weeks, she realized that she wanted him.

 

She wanted him to finally claim her as his wife.

 

At last, Ben arrived and dismounted, handing the harness to one of the stable boys. He turned to look at Rey, as if unsure how he should greet her.

 

Rey offered him a smile and, without any hesitation, threw herself in his arms. She buried her head in the crook of his neck, inhaling his scent. He smelled like horseflesh and dirt and leather from the long journey south, and he was in desperate need of a bath, but to Rey it was the most beautiful and intoxicating scent she had ever come across.

 

He smelled like someone who had returned home.

 

Briefly, she registered his surprise at her sudden welcome, but then she sensed him relax as his arms went around her waist, lifting her up and pressing her body to his. In response, she placed a kiss on his armored shoulder, smiling to herself as she heard his breath hitch.

 

“I missed you,” Rey said as he set her down to take her in. “Did you miss me?”

 

He tilted his head, clearly puzzled by her confession. He then gave her a nod, as if words failed him in that moment. Biting her lower lip, Rey touched his forearm in a reassuring gesture, then turned to the small group of knights who had already dismounted.

 

“I imagine you must have had an exhausting journey,” she told them. “I have arranged for baths and meals to be delivered to your chambers.”

 

She gestured at some of the serving girls to help the knights, then turned her attention to her husband.

 

Ben stood motionless, without a doubt attempting to recover from the shock of seeing her so receptive for once. Waking him up from his reverie, Rey took his large gloved hands into her small ungloved ones and pulled him through the entrance.

 

“And you, dear husband…” Rey proclaimed as she climbed the stone steps which led to his bedchamber. “You will never guess what I have planned for _you_.”

 


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lady Rey shows Baron Solo her "plans".

Rey led her husband to his bedchamber, where a hot bath lay waiting and the roaring fireplace spread its glowing warmth. Two servants deposited the heavy trunk he’d travelled with by the wardrobe before departing to see to the knights her husband had brought with him.

 

As Rey and Ben approached the center of the room, one of the younger serving girls placed a tray of food on one of the small tables and rushed out as well, trying not to giggle at what she suspected was to come.

 

Giving the young girl a pointed look, Rey locked the door. She turned around to see Ben remove his sword, belt and scabbard, setting the items on one of the chairs near the side of the new four-poster bed she had commissioned for him shortly before his departure. She wondered if he would undress in her presence, or if he would at least finally remove his helmet, flushing with anticipation at the thought of catching a glimpse of him after such a long absence.

 

Instead, Ben removed his gloves as Rey stood there transfixed. His hands were pale and large, his fingers as sinfully long as she remembered them, and Rey shivered at the thought of him slipping a digit inside her, as she had once heard men did to bring their ladies pleasure.

 

Then two fingers. Then three.

 

If he noticed her state, her husband showed no awareness as he went to the large and round wooden tub and checked the water’s temperature. Seemingly satisfied, he wiped his hands with one of the towels, then folded the soft fabric on a nearby stool, right next to the colorful rectangles of scented soap that Rey ordered in just a week ago.

 

Ben turned to look at her, and she returned his inquisitive gaze. They stood like that for what seemed like an eternity, neither knowing what to say.

 

In the end, he cleared his throat. “You had new furniture made,” he said, motioning his hands.

 

Rey wet her lips, as she looked around the room, taking in the new furnishings she had carefully selected in her husband’s absence: the new chairs, the table on which his lunch had been placed, the large wardrobe on the right side of the room near the fireplace.

 

The new four poster bed with wooden carvings on its thick pillars.

 

It was an imposing piece, yet with a large mattress that, in Rey’s estimation, looked very inviting. Belatedly, she wondered if he liked the carvings, or if he found doves and flowers too feminine.

 

“I like it,” he said, as if sensing her concern.

 

“I-I did a great many things while you were gone,” she told him, trying and failing to appear detached, as if she redecorated bedchambers every day for a living.

 

He nodded and sat down at the end of the bed. The mattress dipped under his weight. “Will you tell me about them?”

 

She looked down at his thighs. It was an invitation to stay. It was now or never.

 

“Only if you let me undress you.” She approached him. “All of you.”

 

His breath hitched, and then he gave her an almost imperceptible nod. Emboldened, she kneeled at his feet and tugged at his leather boots. He allowed her to remove them, his long fingers digging into the soft mattress.

 

She got up and set the boots to one side as he stood up, beckoning her to remove his armor. She went to work, discarding each piece on the floor: the plate, the chainmail, everything until he was left in nothing but a tunic and his helmet.

 

Her hands reached to touch his helmet, and she saw him stiffen. “A-are you sure about this?” he asked her, his voice shaking, as she touched the cold metal.

 

Rey nodded, confused as to why he was so intent on keeping his helmet on. From the corner of her eye, she noticed him clench his right fist again, as if these torturous moments were too much to bear.

 

“I want to see you, husband,” she murmured. “This is no trick.”

 

She tightened her grip on his helmet, wanting to let him know how much it would mean to finally look upon his face after such a long absence, willing him to see that the things which had changed since his departure were not limited to the keep’s furnishings.

 

That things within her had changed as well.

 

And then Rey finally got her wish, as one of his hands moved to rest on her hip. Heat pooled in the lower part of her body, right at the apex of her thighs. She wondered if he had this effect on her now, how would it be when he took her and made her his in every possible way.

 

She gave him a warm smile and removed his helmet.

 

 

~*~

 

 

Rey gasped at the sight of him.

 

The man standing in front of her was very much the way she remembered him. He had the same black wavy hair she adored, with tips that grazed his broad shoulders. He had the same long nose, and the same long and pale face peppered with tiny moles, a face that had deprived itself of sunlight many years ago. But what always drew her to him were his eyes. They bore the same color as the richest soil, and they were always sad and old, completely at odds with her husband’s age.

 

Despite that, she knew those eyes. She loved those eyes.

 

The facial scar, however, was new. Starting just above his right eye and running down his check and throat, the scar was likely one of the reasons why he’d been so gravely wounded in battle. Tears prickled at her eyes, while thoughts of how close she had been to losing him resurfaced, taking hold of her and settling in her heart like the cold night wind.

 

Ben looked down at the stone floor, as if afraid of her scrutiny. She responded by gently touching his scarred cheek, urging him to look upon her face. He had the visage of a man whose every emotion could be discerned in an instant, and she now understood his strange conduct, why he suddenly wanted to hide himself from the world.

 

From her.

 

“Do I displease you?” he asked in a weak voice, as if his life depended on her answer.

 

She shook her head, tears threatening to escape. “No.”

 

A tear slid down her left cheek anyway, and he brushed if off with his thumb. “Then why are you crying, my love?”

 

Another tear escaped, and he caught that too. And the next one as well.

 

“I am just glad,” she told him. “I am glad to see you again.”

 

He looked at her, with what seemed to be a puzzled look, and a new wave of tears slid down her cheeks. She buried her face in his chest, soaking his tunic with her tears. If this gesture bothered her husband, he showed no sign, his arms wrapping around her waist as his hands stroked her back in comfort.

 

He rested his chin on the top of her head and squeezed her tight. “Dearest love,” he murmured. “What can I do to help you?”

 

She tightened her arms around him. “J-just hold me. Right now, I want you to hold me.”

 

And he did just that, as she cried into his chest, the worries she’d accumulated in the past two weeks spilling like an overflowing river.

 

When her tears finally subsided, Rey looked up into his eyes, still holding him tight, afraid he would vanish before her eyes.

 

But her husband was very much there, in the flesh, no longer in Death’s clutches.

 

Rey stroked his face, pausing briefly over his jawline, reacquainting herself with his features. She could see that he was still puzzled, his eyebrows furrowed as he tried to make sense of her strange behavior.

 

She could not blame him for feeling so bewildered. After all, she’d spent the first months of their marriage taunting and vexing him to no end. She would order her servants to serve him meals she heard he loathed, dump buckets of cold water on his head whenever he chanced to stroll below her window, stuff his mattress with rocks at least once a week…

 

 _That is all in the past now_ , Rey said to herself as she traced her fingers over Ben’s lower lip, marveling at how deliciously soft it felt to her touch. “I love you, Ben,” she told him. “I love you so much.”

 

His eyes widened, as if he could not believe what she had just uttered. “I-I never thought…”

 

“You don’t have to say anything. Just know that I do.” She sensed his surprise in the way his hands had stilled on her lower back, in the way his throat worked at a complete loss for words, and in the adorable way his lower lip quivered. “For now, that is enough.”

 

She had taunted and threatened him to no end and, in exchange, he offered her nothing but kindness. Her husband ate the horrid dinners she ordered as if they were the choicest meals in England. He smirked whenever she dumped cold water on his head, to the point where she suspected he strolled beneath her window on purpose… just so he could get her attention. He voiced no complaints when he stretched his sore back before sitting down for breakfast, offering Rey a perfect view of his well-built frame, his muscles stretching his thin tunic as she clenched her thighs in frustration under the table.

 

To this day, Ben’s patience astonished her.

 

Rey’s hands touched his forearms, and she guided him to the large wooden tub in the center of his bedchamber. She turned to check the water, and seeing it was still warm enough she smiled. Content.

 

Ben stood there motionless, still visibly recovering from the shock of her confession. She traced the outline of his tunic and tugged at the fabric, her intention clear.

 

“Come,” she whispered. “Let me take care of you.”

 

In response he lifted his hands and she pulled the tunic over his head. She then stripped him of the rest of his clothing until he stood in front of her, as naked as the day he was born.

 

She knew he was strong and big and firm – it would be impossible not to notice – but it was still a shock to see him in person, the strong muscles and the expanse of pale skin marred by wounds sustained in battle: a ghastly new wound to his side, a slightly older cut on his upper right arm, an old gash on his left shoulder…

 

The wounds of a warrior.

 

And, of course, the scar on his right cheek that sneaked down the side of his throat and reached his chest. The scar he’d sustained in the north alongside, she was certain, the big wound at his left side. The scar she would kiss goodnight.

 

Rey sneaked a glance below his waist and blushed. Of course, a man as large as Ben would be large everywhere. Her cheeks flushed a deep shade of pink.

 

Mastering an ounce of courage, she looked back up to face him. His gaze was intent and knowing, assessing that she liked what she saw, letting her take her fill of him. She realized he was not embarrassed by his body, but that he instead harbored fears about his scarred face.

 

Rey went on tiptoes and placed a kiss on his scar, her courage deserting her when what she really wanted to do first was kiss his plump lips. But, she knew he needed this. His face betrayed so many new emotions she had only seldom glimpsed before. She could see them in the slight quiver of his lower lips, and in the almost imperceptible twitch of his left eye. 

 

She heard him sigh, evidently content. He stroked her back, and Rey was almost certain he was trying to find a way to remove her heavy mantle. Smiling, she guided his arms to the front, and he tugged at the leather girdle holding the mantle together. The girdle gave in and he let it drop to the ground over his discarded tunic, then he removed the mantle, and after that her deep blue bliaut melted into a pool with the rest of her clothes. He removed each piece of clothing until she stood in front of him, as naked as he. For a moment, Rey considered covering herself with her hands, but the look of sheer hunger she gleaned in his eyes discouraged her, as she understood that he liked what he saw.

 

Ben traced the curve of her right breast with trembling fingers, as if afraid she might break.

 

“You are so beautiful,” he murmured, and she believed him. She had never given much thought about her appearance, but now, with his hungry gaze so fixed upon her, she felt like a queen.

 

Bolstered by his obvious affection, she took his hand and guided him to cup her breast. He squeezed her small breast and closed his eyes for an instant, as if she had given her the greatest gift. She then took his other hand and positioned it on her hip, letting him squeeze that part of her body as well, the invitation clear.

 

 _Claim me_.

 

Now Ben needed no further encouragement, as he pulled her to him and placed a kiss on her forehead and then the tip of her nose, pausing only a scant second before he finally claimed her lips in a kiss that had been months in the making.

 

She moaned into his mouth as he slipped his tongue inside to taste her. Rey’s hands touched his shoulders, holding him close for fear she might collapse from the sheer weight of emotions she had gone through the past fortnight.

 

Rey smiled against his lips, not believing her good fortune. To fall in love with the greatest man.

 

“What is it?” he asked in his warm voice, pressing a kiss on the tip of her nose.

 

“I am so happy,” she told him, opening her eyes to look upon his face again, admiring his plump lips. “I am the happiest woman in the world.”

 

Satisfied with her answer, Ben kissed her again, even hungrier than before, moving his lips against hers in what seemed like instinct, as opposed to a practiced gesture. He then stopped to look at her, sheer delight etched on his face, his sad eyes alight now with what seemed like the greatest of joys.

 

Without warning, he lifted as if she weighed nothing.

 

As one would lift a bride.

 

He kissed her lips again, and she beamed under his caress. She was in his arms again, but this time they were stark naked, and his helmet was off, and he was kissing her… and it was so much better than she could have ever imagined.

 

Ben lowered her in the tub. “Will you join me?” she asked him, her fingers playing with the warm water.

 

He eagerly stroked his jaw and nodded.

 

Soon her husband joined her, finding that the tub was without a doubt large enough to accommodate them both. He leaned back against the round tub and she positioned herself so that she stood between his legs, making sure not to harm any of his vital parts. Satisfied with this arrangement, Rey turned around to look at his face. The lower part of her braided plait was already wet, so he set out to remove the ribbon and free her hair of its confines.

 

“As much as I liked your new hair and dress,” he told her, “I think right now I prefer you like this.”

 

She smiled as he finished unbraiding her hair. “I will have you know that my handmaidens took a very long time to help me prepare for your arrival, husband.”

 

He moved her hair to the side and kissed her now exposed shoulder. “For which they will be handsomely rewarded. I will increase their wages.”

 

His hands then moved to touch the underside of her breasts. She shivered at the contrast between his callused hand and her soft skin. “Will I be rewarded as well?”

 

“What reward do you have in mind, my love?” he asked her as his fingers toyed with her nipples. She sighed, pleased with where this was going.

 

“I think you know, Ben.” She took one of his hands, guiding it between her legs, a slight blush spreading over her cheeks. She angled her body to watch his reaction and was thankful to see his eyes darken with renewed desire.

 

His fingers moved against her core, teasing her, parting her folds ever so slightly. She didn’t suppress the moan that formed in her throat.

 

“What brought on this change?” he asked her, his tone more curious and playful than upset. “I remember you said on our wedding day that I would never have you.”

 

“Missing you,” she confessed as she tilted her head to get a better glimpse of him. “No longer wanting to waste time.”

 

She placed a kiss on one of his moles, the one on the right side of his cheek. Her favorite mole. “Realizing there was a good chance I would never see you again,” she replied as Ben ran a hand through her hair, now slightly curled from the tight braid she’d worn all morning.

 

“I hoped and prayed our separation would alter your regard for me,” he confessed, his voice barely above a whisper.

 

“It has, Ben,” she murmured. She fidgeted her fingers, itching to touch his hair. “More than I could have ever thought possible.”

 

The corners of his lips lifted in a smile. “I am happy you are here, Rey. Safe.”

 

“I got many things done while you were away,” she told him, eager not to dwell on how despondent she had felt when his envoy delivered the news of his injury. “And I missed you, and our silly fights over my lands, and how irritable you look whenever we have breakfast too early in the morning. I have had much to think about while you were gone.”

 

She kissed her favorite mole again. “So, it all worked out in the end. Look where we are.”

 

Ben replied with a deep kiss, with the same instinctual movements she was growing to love.  

 

“Will you tell me what you were up to, then?” he asked once they parted for air, and she nodded.

 

“Only if you let me take care of you,” she replied and leaned to one side, picking up a bar of soap to make a point.

 

He regarded her with an amused look. “Is this going to be your reward?”

 

Rey shook her head as she wet the soap in the tub. “After I tell you how much I got done while you were absent, you will have to spend the rest of the day rewarding me.”

 

He gave her a winning smile that seemed to light up his entire face, as he reached out with one of his long arms to caress her cheek.   

 

“I can reward you for the rest of our lives, if you want to,” he told her, his voice deep and willing.

 

She kissed him, gently biting his lower lip. “Finally, my husband has come up with a good idea.”

 

 

~*~

 

 

 _Soft, sinful, and decadent,_ Rey mused to herself as she ran her hands through Ben’s hair, washing the soap out.

 

“It is unfair for a man to have such beautiful hair,” she complained and was rewarded with his rich and throaty laugh.

 

“If it makes you feel better, sweetheart, I inherited it from my mother,” Ben replied, his back comfortably supported by the tub, his arms spread out on the edge, his toned legs spread and bent at the knees to accommodate Rey between them. She sat facing him, for once grateful not to crane her neck to the heavens just to gaze at his face.

 

“It doesn’t, but I appreciate the effort,” she retorted. “Perhaps if she can travel from Normandy to visit us next year, I will study the resemblance.”

 

“You will have ample time to do so. Knowing my mother, she will spend the entire summer here doting on you. She has always wanted a daughter to spoil.”

 

He talked more about his family now that they were comfortable around each other. From the stories of his childhood, Rey surmised he was closest to his mother, though he had seldom seen her during his formative years. From a young age Ben had been bred for blood and war, his education undertaken by an uncle who viewed him as more of an heir than a nephew. Ben’s father, like most men, had died in battle when his son was but a child.

 

It always amazed Rey how one could be surrounded by people, but still feel so alone.

 

“Turn around,” he asked her, and she obliged, letting Ben wash her hair, his long fingers massaging her scalp with a gentleness that seemed at odds with their strength.

 

“I don’t remember my father either,” Rey told him, admitting that her father, unlike most brave men, had not perished leading soldiers into battle, but instead at a feast from an excess of drink. “His fate has always embarrassed me,” she confessed. “I hated the pitying stares. The knowledge that he succumbed to excess without a care for others.” 

 

He caressed the nape of her neck. “What about your mother?”

 

“She met the same end,” she replied bitterly. “They were a perfect match.”

 

And together with her uncle they formed their own twisted rendering of a Holy Trinity.

 

“Your family does not define you, Rey,” he said, and from the conviction in his voice she suspected he spoke of himself as well.

 

“Neither does yours.”

 

The answer came easily to Rey, as he took one of her hands and kissed each knuckle. “Perhaps we could just make our own family,” she suggested, gazing at the mesmerizing way his plump lips caressed her trembling skin.

 

His eyes glistened as he looked up at her expecting face. “Nothing would please me more, my love.”      

 

     

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone for reading the first chapter, leaving kudos and comments, and giving this story a shot. I was overwhelmed by the encouraging comments. I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well. The rating will go up in the next one! ;) I need to figure out what links I need to click to make that happen lol.


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben helps Rey stretch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the warm response to my previous update. I couldn't stop smiling while reading the comments. I'm so grateful to everyone for giving this story a shot; the support has been very encouraging.

 

Rey and Ben sat on the carpet in front of the fireplace, Ben stoking the fire with a metal poker as she finished drying out her hair. They no longer bothered with clothes now, bashfulness a thing of the past.

 

They had bathed each other until the water had gone lukewarm. She’d washed Ben’s hair, running her fingers through his soft locks as she had always wanted, and then she’d scrubbed the rest of him clean, acquainting herself with his body as intimately as he had acquainted himself with hers. They had not done much else besides talk.

 

Talk of their families shifted to what Rey had accomplished during his absence, smiling as he listened to her intently and considered all her decisions and suggestions for the upcoming harvest and the keep’s defense.

 

Ben finished the last of his meal, an assortment of cold meats and cheeses, ordered after hearing from the cook her husband had brought with him from Normandy that Ben always preferred to eat light after a journey.

 

“I think your influence is rubbing off on me,” he told her as he stood up and deposited the plate on the table.

 

Her gaze followed him, noticing how elegantly his fingers moved. “I think that is a good thing.”

 

He regarded her with a warm look and simply nodded.

 

“I hope you are not too upset about refusing your king to go to court immediately,” she told him. “I will not apologize for it. I know he is satisfied with your victory up north, but you need to rest.”

 

“I know,” Ben replied as he went to the large trunk the servants had brought up.

 

Rey frowned in confusion. Surely, he wasn’t going to put on clothes _now_. She took in his body – his long legs, his wide and strong chest, and finally, the part of him she longed for but had no idea how it would work.

 

Or fit.

 

 _It would be a shame to cover him up in something as mundane as clothing,_ Rey mused to herself when Ben rewarded her with a view of his firm backside.

 

As a slight blush spread over her cheeks, she was grateful he had offered her the choice to decide when to consummate their union six months ago. Her husband was a tantalizing mix of contradictions… strong yet vulnerable, fierce yet sensitive.

 

He enticed her as much as he perplexed her, leaving her both breathless and intrigued.

 

“You are so big,” she blurted out as he closed the trunk’s heavy lid.

 

Ben approached her. “I know,” he replied with a clever smirk.

 

In his large hands, Ben held a small and thin package wrapped in deep blue velvet.

 

“This is for you,” he said, kneeling beside her on the small lattice carpet in front of the fireplace, extending his hand to her, his fingers only a breath away from her breasts.

 

The package looked so fragile in his large hand, and the contrast between the softness of the velvet and his calloused palm was unmistakably arousing. Rey took the small bundle, not only curious as to what it might contain, but also deeply touched that even when going off to battle, Ben’s thoughts had strayed to her.

 

She unwrapped the package with care and paused when she finally glimpsed the contents.

 

“I-I did not know what to get you,” he said, sensing her hesitation. “I was fighting and then recovering from my injury, and there was not much time to have it made…”

 

Rey set aside the velvet cloth and gazed at the small item. It was a double-sided ivory comb with two romantic scenes carved on the handle. She turned the comb on each side to look at the carvings, the first of a lady sending her lover off to battle, the second of the lover – freshly returned from war – kneeling to his lady in adoration.

 

It was an intimate gift she knew of from her secret readings in the small chamber her uncle used to lock her in. A token a lover would give to the women who owned his heart. A gift she once dreamed of receiving but never believed she would be fortunate enough to find someone who would care for her. How had her husband guessed?

 

She ran a thumb over the handle, tracing the small, yet intricate carvings. “It’s very beautiful,” she told him. “It is the best gift you could have given me, Ben.”

 

He cupped her left cheek and she leaned into his touch, reveling in the warmth emanating from his palm. “You did what you thought was right when you refused the king,” he told her. “I could never be angry at you for that, and I assure you there will be no consequences. Nobody will punish you anymore.”

 

Rey’s eyes widened at his remark, and her mind scrambled to think how Ben could have discovered Plutt’s punishments, or some of the most intimate desires she’d harbored in all those years of loneliness and neglect. Had one of the older servants told him? Had she disclosed something by accident in the months following their union?

 

When Ben had conquered her keep, he showed mercy to the innocent servants who had no part to play in Unkar Plutt’s defiance, asking them to stay on alongside the servants who accompanied him from Normandy, to build what he hoped would become a powerful and respected household.

 

Rey would not admit it then, but it was a relief to not be surrounded solely by strangers, people who could speak no language other than the strange tongue she’d struggled to learn under her husband’s calm instruction, all the while pretending to be terrible at languages simply to vex him. He could have hired a tutor to get her out of his way, or he could have refused to instruct her in the language spoken at court and kept her isolated from the world, locked in a fortress with nothing to occupy herself with, as she heard some men did with their wives.

 

But her husband, she had come to realize, was not like most men.

 

He had ignored her attempts to irritate him and persevered, teaching her his language in his own broken Anglo-Saxon, until she could no longer pretend to be an utterly brainless dolt, on one hand because she disliked pretending to be stupid, and on the other hand because her husband’s pronunciation of her native tongue was so horrendous she could not resist pointing that out in his own language to tease him.

 

Ben extended his free hand to ask for her comb, and she pressed it into his palm, at once guessing his intent. She then turned around and allowed him to comb her hair.

 

“I would never revoke your decision,” he said, as he began running his fingers through her hair in search of knots. “It was a prudent one, and I’m glad you were the one to make it.”

 

She narrowed her eyebrows. “Why me?”

 

“Because you are my wife, not my prisoner, and you have every right to decide what happens in this household,” he replied as he gently started to comb her hair. “I know some might run their homes differently, but it strikes me that, to be happy we should be equals. What do you think, Rey?”

 

Warmth blossomed in her chest. “I think I like that.”

 

Ben worked his way up through her hair, his strokes becoming longer, yet still maintaining a steady rhythm.

 

Her throat worked. “Will the king be angry with you?”

 

“Everything will be fine,” he assured her. “I promise you. And as you know by now, I am always true to my word.”

 

He finished his ministrations, running his hand one last time through her long tresses to make sure he had done a proper job. Once he was finished Rey turned around, watching him as he set the comb down on the carpet.

 

“I do not regret marrying you either, Ben,” she whispered, a reminder of the last words they had shared all those weeks ago on the day he rode north.

 

Rey kissed him then, pressing her mouth against his with as much tenderness as she could muster. He allowed her to take charge, letting his palms rest on the carpet for support. She ran her hands over his shoulders, marveling at his strength.

 

He was all muscle, a powerful warrior hardened by strife and battle, and he was all hers.

 

Grateful for her good fortune, Rey trailed kisses across his jawline, moving downward until she gently kissed the gash on his left shoulder, as if her touch could heal his old wound.

 

His breath hitched in response.

 

“If your king had changed his mind and ordered you to marry another lady instead,” she murmured as her lips nuzzled his neck, “someone richer, finer, and nobler, with better lands and a bigger keep, would you have been happier?”

 

“Is this a seduction?”

 

She lifted her head, giving him a winning smile. “Is it working?”

 

He chuckled. “No.”

 

“Oh.”

 

His hand brushed the tips of her long hair. “You have seduced me a long time ago, my love.”

 

She kissed his cheek. “Be honest with me.”

 

“Have I ever lied to you?”

 

Rey shook her head. From the moment they met, he had been nothing but honest. Perhaps too honest for his own good, she mused thinking of their first disastrous encounter, when he’d conquered her keep and ordered to have her brought before him.

 

She had spit on his boots and called him a Norman dog.

 

“I would have been miserable with another,” Ben replied. “Since the moment I laid eyes on you, I knew I would do anything to have you.”

 

Her eyes widened. She remembered that day with clarity, the intimidating sight of him riding in the vanguard to put down her uncle’s foolish rebellion. If she closed her eyes, she could still recall the practiced sword movements she had glimpsed from the safety of the keep, the heady mixture of practiced grace and sheer, intoxicating brutality.

 

“Is that so, husband? You’re not teasing me, are you?”

 

“No, my love,” he whispered. “You rule my heart.”

 

“I thought your king was your ruler,” she teased him. “You have to do what he demands of you. No questions asked.”

 

“I am loyal, but I am not a dog. Certainly not a Norman dog.”

 

Rey stroked his forearm. “Don’t remind me of the horrible things I said.” _Norman dog. Murderous snake. Monster._

 

“I deserved them, and I won’t deny that I liked all your insults, my love. They aroused me terribly,” he told her, the corners of his mouth lifting in a genuine smile. “If I recall, I called you a savage.”

 

Her hand settled on top of his. “You did, husband. And, fortunately for you, I know what you must do to make up for your insolent behavior.”

 

“I that so?” he inquired, raising one eyebrow as if to challenge her. “What do you want me to do?”

 

“I want you to take me to bed, Ben,” she replied, her gaze earnest and very much determined. “I want you to finally claim me and make me yours. What do you say to that?”

 

 

 

*~*

 

 

 

Ben took her in his arms and carried her to bed as if she were a blushing bride on her wedding night, his soulful eyes never once leaving her face.

 

She returned his gaze while he lowered her on the soft mattress, caressing her as if she were made of the finest velvet. He then joined her, the mattress dipping under their combined weights. The sheets were linen, yet cold when they touched her back, but Rey knew that would not be so for long, for she felt liquid fire flowing through her veins. The warmth of the fireplace paled in comparison to the soft caresses of the man she loved.

 

Ben settled beside her, sitting on one side with his elbow supporting his weight. He used his other hand to explore her body, placing his palm on her stomach and moving slowly upwards to cup one of her breasts, circling one of her nipples until it hardened under his ministrations. All the while, his eyes never left her face, and he drank in her flushed cheeks, her features heady with desire. He squeezed the aching nipple and she sighed with sheer pleasure, her back arching and pleading for his touch.

 

“Are you sure about this?” he asked in a hoarse voice, eyes fixed at her pebbled nipple as his fingers moved to touch her other breast, lavishing the aching tip with much needed attention.

 

Rey nodded, unable to bear the slow pace and wanting him to finally claim her in the most intimate way she heard was possible.

 

“Please,” she sighed as he squeezed her other nipple.

 

When she uttered her eager plea, Ben’s strokes grew bolder, his hand leaving her sensitive breasts to move downwards, touching her knees, her thighs, her hips… as if trying to memorize every inch of her. She lay on the soft bed, fully open to Ben’s fiery caress, not knowing if he expected her to do something in turn, yet nonetheless enjoying the brush of his long fingers against her sensitive skin. From his mesmerized gaze, Rey surmised that Ben did not seem bothered by her inexperience, and a wave of relief washed through her at the thought. A soothing feeling took over, a feeling tinged with an intoxicating sensation that she could only describe as anticipation.

 

As her husband moved on top of her, Rey wet her lips, aware and delighted he was about to kiss her again.

 

“I am yours,” Ben murmured, his lips only a breadth away from claiming her own. “Body and soul.”

 

He captured her lips then, his kiss hungry and searching. She opened herself to him, her body trembling from the sheer pleasure of his confession, words so simple and yet so potent that stirred Rey to the point where she was certain she could conquer the world if she wished.

 

“There is no other place I’d rather be,” he said when he broke for air. His lips glistened, and his eyes were wild and scorching. “Tell me this is not a dream, my love.”

 

 The corners of her mouth lifted in a satisfied smile. “It isn’t a dream,” she replied as he pressed his forehead against hers. “We belong to each other, Ben. Kiss me again, and you will see.”

 

He obeyed her, claiming her mouth again in a searing kiss, holding her tight as if he feared she would vanish at any moment. Rey’s eyelids fluttered closed, her husband’s lips opening a new and exciting world that she was only just beginning to understand, anticipation swirling through her entire body.  

 

Ben’s hands never stopped moving. He traced circles over her hips with one hand and slipped his other hand between her legs, parting her thighs in an attempt to accommodate his considerable size. Rey opened herself to him willingly, eager for more of the delicious tremors his caresses unleashed inside her.

 

He cupped her core, spreading the moisture that had formed there with his palm, his fingers lightly brushing over the thatch of brown curls, uncovering a small nub that burned for his touch.

 

The stroke was electrifying, and Rey arched her back in response, moaning against her husband’s lips. Emboldened, Ben bit her lower lip as he pressed his thumb to the sensitive button, eliciting another moan.

 

“Please,” Rey whimpered, though she did not know what to beg for. There were so many things she wanted Ben to give her, but she lacked the words to express herself, her mind muddled with sheer mounting pleasure.

 

Ben slipped his tongue between her lips, and she allowed his kiss to guide her, learning as she went, memorizing the way he moved his lips against hers, attempting to replicate what she could to show her husband she enjoyed his exhilarating touch.

 

Meanwhile, Ben’s fingers grew bolder, stroking Rey between her legs until he parted her folds to circle her entrance. Rey spread her thighs to give him more access, whimpering against his mouth to encourage his attentions. She had touched herself there before, usually after Ben annoyed her with something insignificant or ridiculous, thinking of how it would be like to have his large hands there instead of her small fingers. However, her imagination was no match for the intoxicating feeling of having him touch her intimately for the very first time.

 

As if understanding what she needed, Ben broke their kiss, his sinful mouth moving down her jawline, his devilish tongue darting out to taste her skin. He continued to caress her mound, touching and coating his fingers with the hot liquid between her legs. Each careful stroke unleashed a new wave of moisture, easing his tender movements, bringing her closer to something just out of reach.

 

Rey was embarrassed by how wet she was, but her husband did not seem to mind. He continued to stroke her, his touch gentle and curious as he figured out what she liked and didn’t. If anything, Rey noticed that her being so wet made everything easier for both, and her embarrassment dwindled as her whimpers grew more urgent and encouraging. Ben’s sinful lips still moved against her warm skin, trailing soft kisses down her jawline, until he finally rested his lips close to her ears, nibbling at her fragile earlobe.

 

Then, at long last, Ben slipped his middle finger between her legs, stretching her opening with his thick digit. She gasped at the slight burning sensation, and he kissed her earlobe then, whispering soft endearments in her ear.

 

“You’re so wonderful, Rey,” he murmured, as his finger found a spot that made her moan loudly. “So tight, so lovely, so perfect.”

 

“Y-yes please,” she moaned incoherently, wanting more of the quivering sensation that bloomed inside her, a mounting pleasure that hovered somewhere beyond her physical body.

 

Emboldened by her reaction, Ben focused on that spot she liked, moving his finger inside Rey’s wet opening, touching the sensitive spot so effectively that her moans grew bolder with each new wave of arousal. For the briefest of moments, Rey wanted to cover her mouth, lest someone in the keep might hear, but found it impossible to muster the energy for that much effort.

 

 _Let them hear_ , she thought to herself as Ben touched that aroused spot again. _Let them hear he is mine_.

 

Her back arched and her hands fisted the sheets whenever he stroked her there, afraid she might fall off the bed from the sheer pleasure she was experiencing for the first time under his guidance. All concern melted at Ben’s touch. Her moans were wild, awakened as if from a deep and dizzying slumber.

 

“More,” she gasped, and her husband obliged, slipping a second finger inside her, stretching her as deliciously as he had before.

 

The slight burning sensation persisted for a few seconds, as her tight passage tried to accommodate his large fingers, but Rey found that she liked the feeling of being so full, wanting to see how much more her husband could stretch her, how further she could make it.

 

She stared at his burning gaze, his rich dark eyes tinged with what seemed like concern for her.

 

“I won’t break,” she assured him, the corners of her lips lifting into an encouraging smile. “Please don’t stop.”  

 

Ben thrust his fingers inside her, and Rey closed her eyes again, her whimpers growing more and more urgent, chasing something that was just out of reach. But Ben seemed to know what he had do, and he continued thrusting, hitting that spot that made her cry out with savage desire. A wordless encouragement.

 

She could not see him, overwhelmed as she was from the sheer uncomplicated pleasure of his touch, but she could hear the obscene sounds he made with his fingers as he moved them in an out of her, each thrust becoming bolder and bolder until she was close to bursting.

 

His mouth latched on to one of her breasts, coating her nipple with his wet tongue and teasing her with his teeth. She gave up all decorum then, thrashing like a wanton.

 

“More, Ben. Please,” she cried out, urging him to go faster as her entrance clamped tight around his fingers.

 

He slipped a third finger inside her then, and Rey was so wet that she accepted him easily, her hips bucking upward as if to try and fit even more of him inside her channel. She moaned almost continuously, as his fingers thrust in and out of her, repeatedly hitting the spot that made her cry out the loudest.

 

“Open your eyes,” he told her, and, as if spellbound by the sound of his feral voice, she obeyed him.

 

As her eyelids fluttered open, Rey came face to face with the sheer hunger in his wild gaze, a rousing desire that matched the mounting pleasure of his rapid thrusts. Dazed, Rey found it impossible to take her eyes off him, the proof of his longing for her so naked, raw and all-encompassing.

 

Looking into his eyes seemed to have stirred something primal within her, and Rey’s moans became impossibly loud until she finally burst.

 

She came with a scream, Ben’s gaze fixed on her face as she gushed all over his hand, basking in her husband’s gratified smile.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have never written smut before, so I can only hope this turned out okay *hides*. The things Reylo inspires me to write lol. This smut scene was written alongside the smut that’s coming (pun intended) in the next two chapters. I hope you enjoyed this update.
> 
> Author's Note:
> 
> The Reylo jacuzzi in the previous chapter seems to have intrigued some of you, and @ntantzen suggested I add an author’s note to explain some of the things I researched in order to write this fic.
> 
> \- Bathing in the Middle Ages was done in private homes and in communal bath houses (which gives me a great idea for a companion fic lol). You can check out some illustrations here: https://imgur.com/a/s3VNhIo . Couples bathing together as a prelude to coitus is a scene that I’ve seen depicted quite often in these illustrations. Private bathing was done in large wooden tubs which were usually brought up and filled with hot water in the bedroom. 
> 
> \- Medieval combs were made of bone, boxwood or ivory, and were viewed as love tokens. Ben giving Rey such a gift would be viewed as an intimate gesture, especially considering the carving depicted on the handle and their relationship. You can check out some combs here: https://imgur.com/a/zBqnSpC 
> 
> \- The “strange” language Rey references when reminiscing about Ben’s lessons is French, which was the language spoken at court at the time. French was the mother tongue of William the Conqueror (1066-1087) and every English king until Henry IV (1399–1413).


	4. Chapter Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Smut

Once her climax subsided, Rey unclenched her fists, her hands weak and shaking as she let go of the damp linens. Her legs trembled as if she had jumped off a precipice, yet was greeted not by an abyss, but by a world which she was only now beginning to discover. She closed her eyes then and sighed, overcome by a feeling so full she feared the very essence of her would burst anew.

 

Ben withdrew his fingers and she suffered the loss acutely, as if his touch had only been a wondrous dream. But, much to her relief, Ben did not leave her. Instead, he then bent down to kiss her lips, opening her to him again, pliant and willing.

 

He worshiped her with a softness she found both intoxicating and inviting, like the first sip of a sweet and forbidden liquor. One of her hands moved to cup his scarred cheek, touching the thinning line with the tips of her trembling fingers.

 

“You did so well, my love,” he murmured, trailing kisses down her jawline. “So well. You are so lovely, so wonderful.”

 

They must have kissed for at least a dozen minutes, until his lower body pressed against hers. She opened her eyes at the contact, sensing something hard and incredibly arousing poke her between her thighs. In response, Rey parted her legs, having figured out exactly how he was supposed to fit.

 

Ben must have read her mind – as he always seemed to do – because he grabbed onto her hips with both hands and flipped her over. She found herself sitting on top of him while his back rested on the mattress, unbothered by the mess she had just made on the sheets.

 

Emboldened, Rey placed a kiss on his chest, on the spot where his heart was beating almost impossibly fast, as if the simple act of her touch could soothe him. Lifting her head, Rey saw a mix of emotions etched on his face.

 

She saw Ben’s undeniable hunger, but she also saw his satisfaction at what he had just done for her, how he’d pleasured and brought her to the edge of the world. And there, in his gleaming eyes, she also glimpsed a deep, deep longing that had only partly been sated.

 

“You are so beautiful,” she whispered, sucked into the sheer intensity of his gaze and the whirlpool of emotions it betrayed.

 

Rey traced his jawline, wanting to convince him that this was not a dream. That they were here, together, living in blissful harmony. That the fears brought forth by his injury were a matter of the past.

 

His breath hitched in response.

 

“I love you so much,” she reassured him, her touch gentle like a healing balm.

 

Ben caught her hand somewhere on his jawline and kissed her palm, sending a pleasant fluttering all over her body.

 

“I love you too,” he said, and Rey’s pounding heart soared at his confession.

 

She replied by kissing him again, as his clever hands moved to cup her buttocks, positioning her against his hard cock. As if by instinct, Rey lifted her lower body a few inches and pressed the head of his arousal against her core, spreading warm tendrils of pleasure in her belly. As expected, she was still wet, and the anticipation of Ben stretching and filling her as he had done just moments ago with his fingers thrilled her even further.

 

Ben slowly guided her to take his thick member inside her wet opening. He was big, as she had always known he would be, and she struggled fitting the flared head despite how damp she already was.

 

Sensing her distress, he used his thumb to touch her core anew, sending new tremors coursing through her aroused body, unleashing a new wave of moisture that coated his arousal. Reassured, Rey pushed further down, slowing her pace, taking him in inch by agonizingly sweet inch. When she managed to fit the head inside her deliciously stretched opening, Rey smiled in satisfaction.

 

“You feel so good, Ben. So perfect and right,” she murmured, almost purring like a cat.

 

She expected excruciating pain, as she had heard there would be the first time, but what she experienced now seemed foreign to her. It did not even feel the way pain was normally supposed to feel. She had scraped herself as a girl, and she had fallen from trees and tripped over rocks, but the pain from the past did not compare to this one. This new sensation could hardly be called pain. Instead, it was an unbelievable feeling of fullness, a new and thrilling sensation curiously tinged with so much pleasure that she thought she might burst at any minute.

 

Looking at her husband, Rey saw that he had closed his eyes, his brows furrowed as if in deep concentration.

 

“Look at me,” she commanded, but her voice was both firm and gentle.

 

Ben obeyed her, revealing his gloriously rich and melancholy brown eyes, his soft gaze tinged with his obvious need for her and the release that only Rey’s body could give him.

 

“You’re still so tight, dearest love,” he breathed, his face a mixture between wonder and pain, his large hands fisting the damp sheets as she had done before. “Let me –”

 

Rey shushed him, urging him to stop worrying he might break her in half. She continued to slide down his large member, touching the aroused nub at the top of her core with her thumb, the way Ben had done not that long ago ago.

 

“Oh,” she cried out, satisfied that she succeeded in replicating her husband’s pleasurable touch so swiftly.

 

Rey stroked the nub again, eliciting another moan that joined her own. The deep moan belonged the large and powerful man who lay beneath her, utterly transfixed by her every movement. Ben’s awed gaze travelled across her body before finally resting on her stretched opening, as if he’d uncovered the most precious of treasures. She drank in his starving gaze, assurance coursing through her veins like a roaring fire, turning her cheeks into a deep shade of pink.  

 

“I-I really like this,” Rey told him, stroking herself with her fingers as Ben had done moments ago. She gazed into his dark eyes, feeling his member harden even further inside her, stretching her to the limit.

 

“I want you so much, Rey. You’re so perfect,” he replied, his tone encouraging her to take him deeper, to give him the mercy of release. “I need you.”

 

Rey’s lips parted. Riding him as she was, with half of his glorious length already inside her, she assumed they were past any feeling of astonishment.  But, hearing Ben’s praises, gazing at his disheveled hair and taking in the pleading look hidden beneath his glistening eyes, Rey imagined a part of her would never cease to wonder at the arousing contrasts her husband embodied.

 

To outsiders, he was a fearless and forbidding warrior. But, to her, he was so much more than his intimidating aura.

 

She placed her hands on his chest, reveling in the wide expanse of muscle.

 

_This beautiful man is mine_ , she mused as a warm quivering sensation spread through her belly, and a new wave of hot liquid pooled between her legs, coating her husband’s arousal. Inside her stretched hole, Ben’s cock twitched, demanding her attention.

 

Smiling, Rey embraced the glorious sensation of being so utterly filled and whole, as if she had recaptured a part of her that went missing.

 

“I want you too, Ben,” she whispered.

 

Then, with one final push, Rey buried his member completely inside her.

 

She cried out, the shock of his girth only now registering in her mind, despite having had sufficient time to accommodate him.

 

“Rey,” her husband murmured, his hands unclenching the linen sheets to rest on her own.

 

She shook her head. “I am fine,” she gasped as pleasure and pain combined in an irresistible mixture.

 

Rey exhaled, letting out an absurdly deep breath. “You feel so good, Ben. This feels so good.”

 

With a warm smile, Rey leaned forward and kissed his scared cheek. “Just wait, husband,” she murmured.

 

They stood like this for a few moments, him buried inside her to the hilt, her breathing heavily in between peppering his face with kisses to assure him she was indeed well.

 

_Incredibly well,_ she thought to herself.

 

Still, as Ben rested his warm hands on her hips, his furrowed gaze betrayed his concern. “Rey, if this is too much…” he began in an apologetic tone, as if afraid of hurting her.

 

“No,” she exclaimed, placing her small hands on top of his long fingers. “Don’t you dare move.”

 

“Rey,” he protested.

 

Determined, Rey shook her head and then straightened her back, placing her hands on the mattress on either side of his body. Neither of them moved, as Rey still needed some time to accommodate to his size, but instead they just gazed into each other’s eyes in complete awe, not quite believing they had made it this far.

 

Rey could see in his expression that he was trying very hard to control himself, though she did not know for the life of her why that might be.

 

_Is this painful for him?_ Rey wondered as she took in his furrowed brows.

 

“Are you all right?” she asked him.

 

Ben nodded then shook his head, eliciting a bemused look from her.

 

“I love being inside you, my love,” he told her. “I have wanted this from the moment I saw you. I don’t want this to end before it even begins.”

 

In response, Rey kissed the tip of his nose, chuckling as she enjoyed the intoxicating effect she had on him.

 

“Are _you_ all right?” he asked her in turn.

 

“I really was not looking my best when we first met,” she replied as she started moving on top of him. “But there is no accounting for taste.”

 

Ben tightened his hold on her hips. “If you move like that, I won’t last long.”

 

When faced with his reaction, Rey tilted her head in confusion.

 

“You will see soon enough,” he assured her as he used his hands to guide her movements.

 

Rey allowed him to set the pace. The movements started out slow, and she picked up what she needed to do to make this enjoyable for them both.

 

Soon, she took charge, using her hands for support as she rocked against him. Sheer pleasure spread through her as her movements quickened gradually in search of release, her goal hovering somewhere nearby, waiting for her to be fulfilled.

 

Meanwhile, Ben gripped her hips with even more strength as his breathing grew hoarse and all they could hear were the intoxicating and obscene sounds of their lovemaking. His eyes were fixed upon her in awe and adoration, and she had never felt more powerful than she did in that moment, her husband under her, revealing all the secrets of the world at her discretion.

 

A renewed need to touch herself between her legs took over, and Rey whimpered, overwhelmed by the intensity of the sensations she was experiencing.

 

“Touch me,” she gasped, and Ben obeyed.

 

He pressed his right thumb right where she wanted him to and began stroking her nub in circles, drawing out loud moans from her throat, moans that increased with the pace of his caresses and her own rocking movements.

 

They moved like that in perfect harmony, as if they had practiced a lifetime to come together at this moment in time. Rey’s moans grew louder and louder under her husband’s delightful touch, until a wondrous and earth-shattering warmth bloomed within her like a forest fire.

 

At last she collapsed on top of Ben’s firm chest, crying out with sheer pleasure, gasping and trembling as she finally reached the burning peak.

 

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she murmured, delirious with pleasure.

 

Overwhelmed by the delicious quivering sensation between her legs, Rey clenched her thighs around Ben’s body, riding out her climax. She peppered her husband’s chest with kisses, feeling blissfully content, pausing after a couple of seconds to rest her cheek against his heart, feeling its frantic beating and how well it matched her own.

 

In turn, Ben gripped her hips again with both hands and pushed himself inside her, thrusting so hard she had to steady herself against his body, whimpering both from arousal and the fear that she might fall off him. He groaned in response, an animalistic and possessive sound that made her inside clench around his length.

 

“I want you, Rey,” he gasped. “I want you so badly.”

 

Ben’s thrusts were strong and determined, and the sheer intensity made her gasp. Rey rested her palms on his shoulders, steadying herself to catch a glimpse of his face as he continued moving inside of her, seeing his lips part and his eyes close in deep concentration.

 

His resolve struck her as incredibly arousing, like that of a warrior who left no stone unturned, and the thought elicited a new wave of arousal that spread from the apex of her thighs across her entire body.

 

“You will always have me, Ben,” she whimpered in between his thrusts and her uncontrollable moans. “As I have you.”

 

Her next climax took her by surprise, and Rey swiftly came around Ben’s cock, whimpering and bathing his length with her juices, her face flushed with arousal.

 

Then, after several powerful thrusts, her husband stilled and spilled his seed inside her, letting out a deep and satisfied growl. The sound was primal in its strength, as if he had waited his entire life for this moment instead of the six months that had passed since their wedding.

 

The sight of him, so spent and fragile and sated nearly took her breath away. He was the most beautiful man she had ever seen.

 

Rey pushed a lock of his hair to the side and Ben opened his eyes then, as if awakened by a savior from a deep and endless slumber.

 

“I should thank _you_ ,” he murmured. “I never thought –”

 

There were tears prickling at the corners of his eyes, and she wiped them away before pressing a gentle kiss to his right temple.

 

“I know, Ben,” she replied. “I know.”

 

“How can I describe how utterly your touch has changed me?” Ben asked her. “There are no words that do you justice, my love.”

 

She kissed his right mole. Her favorite mole.

 

“You’ve shown me, and that is far more important, Ben,” she assured him. “There will be many opportunities for you to tell me, my darling.” She kissed his scarred cheek. “My sweet, sweet, darling husband.”

 

“This is only the beginning,” he vowed, and she could only nod, his concern and love for her spreading warm tendrils that embraced her heart.

 

His member had softened inside her, so Ben gently lifted her lower body up to slip his length outside of her deliciously stretched passage. Rey moaned in protest, but he calmed her with a searing kiss, his soft lips tasting hers as if he had traversed an entire continent without sustenance.

 

When they paused for air, Ben’s hands glided over her body to stroke her backside. At the first contact between his strong hands and her flushed skin, Rey noticed he was trembling. Nonetheless, Ben pressed her body to his, guiding her to rest her head on his wide chest.

 

Rey did as he asked, but not before placing another kiss, this time around to his left temple, lest it felt lonely.

 

They remained this way as the sun finally set down on the horizon, casting their warm bedchamber in a pale shade of orange, basking them in the satisfying sensation of finally being whole and at peace with the world.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the amazing response to my previous chapter. I am so grateful for the support. Chapter 4 is the one I'm probably most nervous about, so I can only hope you enjoyed this update as well (in all its smutty historical romance glory lol).


	5. Chapter Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post-coital bliss and the return of the Reylo hot tub...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the final chapter of my short fic! I hope you all enjoy it. Thank you so much for the support! :)

Chapter Five

 

 

Rey woke up to the sound of pouring water.

 

She must have dozed off at some point after the sun had set, and, when she finally opened her eyes, she was greeted by the welcoming sunlight peeking through the window, signaling a bright morning ahead. She felt warm and, as she returned to consciousness, she realized she was wrapped in layers of blankets and quilts.

 

Rubbing her eyes, Rey craned her neck to look in the direction the sound had come from. Two servant girls were pouring buckets of hot water in the large wooden tub, trying their hardest not to disturb her slumber. Looking at the way the young maids failed to suppress their smiles, Rey surmised the two girls could already guess what had come to pass in this bedchamber in the previous night.

 

The previous night…

 

Rey turned to her right and noticed that side of the bed was still unmade, yet empty.

 

Ben was gone.

 

Trying to swallow the pinch of disappointment, Rey gathered the blankets around her and made haste to get out of bed, wincing at the soreness between her legs.

 

The sound must have attracted the attention of the two young girls, who looked up and curtsied, stammering a good morning in between their knowing smiles. They rushed to fill the tub with the last two buckets of hot water, gestured to the table where they had left a hearty breakfast, and turned to exit. In that moment, the door suddenly opened, and the two girls gasped as they dropped the empty buckets on the floor.

 

Ben stood barefoot in the doorway, wearing a dark and heavy robe tied at the waist. He looked at the two girls who were scrambling to gather what they had dropped, and then he leaned forward to pick up two of the buckets that were closest to him. He set the two objects down outside the room and watched as the flustered girls gathered their wits and scrambled outside, one of them almost tripping over her skirts in the process. Rey studied her husband’s face, disappointed his gaze betrayed nothing this time around.

 

Ben closed the door behind him. “I asked to have our lunch served in our bedchamber,” he said as a matter of fact.

 

She looked down at her lap, not quite certain how to process this new revelation.

 

 _Our bedchamber_.

 

Her mind conjured an image in which she rode her husband to completion every day, pausing only to eat and wash, and finding the whole experience to be quite pleasant despite the current ache between her legs. If someone had told her six months ago she would be fantasizing of riding her husband like a prized stallion in their shared bedchamber, she would have laughed in their face and called them daft for even entertaining such a thought.

 

He padded over to the bed and sat on the edge, close to her, but at the same time too far away for her liking.

 

“I-I hope last night was…enjoyable for you,” he said, waiting for her reply as if it could dictate the course of his future.

 

Rey looked up, staring into those dark and sensitive eyes, the eyes of a gentle poet bestowed upon a fearsome warrior.

 

“Yes,” she replied, a slight blush tinging her cheeks, as her eyes focused on his chest, and the brief expanse of skin she could glimpse peeking from under his heavy robe. “Yes, it was.”

 

Ben nodded and took one of her hands in his, drawing lazy circles on the back with his thumb.

 

They sat like that for a few moments, Ben massaging her hand as Rey looked up and traced the contours of his face with her curious gaze, taking in the scar which marked his right cheek, pondering on how such a wound could make her husband even more desirable in her eyes. It was the sort of silence that was more intimate than awkward, a comfortable domesticity that spread its warm tendrils through her body more effectively than the calm morning sunlight. 

 

“You’re here,” she said after a few moments to fill the silence, wishing she did not sound so relieved.

 

He raised an eyebrow. “Was I not supposed to?”

 

“O-Of course you were,” she stammered.

 

Understanding seemed to simmer in his gaze. “Were you worried I left you, my love?”

 

Rey could only nod, as thoughts of how close he had come to death threatened to emerge at the back of her mind, mixing together with the inevitable fear that what transpired yesterday between them had been nothing but a beautiful dream.

 

 _I must not dwell on such dark thoughts_ , she said to herself.

 

He brought the small hand he had been massaging to his lips and pressed a soft kiss between her knuckles.

 

“I will make it up to you tomorrow morning, my darling Rey. I promise that when you open your eyes, I will be right beside you,” he replied. “Ready to wake you up with my snoring.”

 

“I will kick you out of the bed then,” she threatened.

 

He turned her hand around and kissed her palm, knowing not to listen to her empty threats. “I was also talking to one of the servants. I want to have your things moved here. If you agree, of course.”

 

“Y-you do?”

 

Ben gave her a pointed look. “After yesterday, do you think I am going to settle for waking up alone for the rest of my life?”

 

Rey didn’t know how to answer that question. She didn’t know what he thought anymore. He had been visibly pleased by their lovemaking yesterday, but she had not thought much about how things would be like the following day, once they would settle back into their roles as master and mistress of the old and venerable stronghold they called home.

 

“I think I’d like that very much,” she replied.

 

He stilled, his eyes suddenly losing their glint.

 

“Having my things moved to your chamber, I mean,” she remedied, deciding not to tease him.

 

For now.

 

“You nearly killed me,” he said, taking her small hand in his and resting it over his heart to make his point. The robe he wore was soft to the touch, but still she slipped her hand beneath the collar, preferring the warmth of his skin to the softness of the fabric.

 

“What we shared yesterday meant everything to me, Rey. And I claimed you for no reason other than my love for you.” He worked his jaw, as if struggling to express what he wanted to say. “I’ve never… done this before. With anyone.”

 

“You mean…” she trailed. But that couldn’t be. A man as strong and powerful as Ben, a tried and true warrior would have certainly had his pick of all the ladies in Normandy.

 

“I have lived among soldiers all my life.” He shrugged as a matter of fact. “They’re not shy about sharing stories and boasting.”

 

Rey considered his words. “And I was your first…”

 

Ben nodded. “You were my first, and I want you to be my last.”

 

“You were my first as well.”

 

He gave her a gentle smile. “I know, my love. I feel as if I have been waiting for you all my life.”

 

Rey’s heart swelled at his confession. “I cannot imagine being with anyone other than you. I don’t want another.” Her eyes glistened with tears then, as the memories of what he had endured in the past fortnight burst forth. “When I heard you were injured, I-I feared the worst. Suddenly, losing you was inconceivable, and I harbored so many regrets.”

 

Tears trickled down her cheeks. “I was so afraid of being alone in this world. It was the fear of losing you that made me realize the extent of my feelings,” she murmured. “The extent of my love for you.”

 

With newfound courage, Ben took the hand she has placed over his heart and kissed it. “Don’t cry, my love,” he murmured, kissing each finger, reassuring her that she was no longer alone. “I am here now, and you will never be alone again. You will never be lonely or starve. Nobody will harm you any longer.”

 

She gasped as memories of her uncle’s mistreatment emerged. “H-how did you know?”

 

“Oh, my darling, Rey,” her husband exclaimed, his large hand holding her own. “How could I not inquire about your well-being? From the moment I saw you after I took this keep, I felt your suffering.”

 

Ben kissed her fingers again, his soft lips a caress to her soul. “And I vowed I would do whatever it took to bring you joy, to let you build a home you could be mistress of, to let you own what was unjustly denied to you.” He took a deep breath. “Even if you despised me for my deeds.”

 

“I don’t despise you,” she told him, bringing his hand to her lips. “And you have brought me joy.” She kissed his hand. “And love. So much love, I shall never tire of it. You are the one I wish to build a home with. What do you say to that, husband?”  

 

Ben looked into her eyes then, his warm gaze so filled with love and awe.

 

 _For me,_ Rey mused, her heart soaring.

 

“I cannot imagine a greater privilege,” he replied. “Now that I have returned to you, my love, you won’t be able to get rid of me that easily. That is a promise, Rey. Unfortunately, you will have to put up with me for quite some time.”

 

As her husband uttered those words, his gaze glistened with unshed tears. “Does that please you, my lovely Rey?”

 

“It does,” she whispered as he captured her lips. She kissed him back, running her hands through his hair, marveling anew at its softness. “It does, my darling husband.”

 

 

*~*

 

 

As Rey uttered those fateful words, Ben pulled the blankets away and lifted her in his arms. He moved with haste to the wooden tub, and it was not until Rey’s skin touched the water that she remembered what had awakened her in the first place.

 

The water was still very warm, and it soothed her aching and sore muscles. She leaned against the tub and sighed with relief.

 

“Will you join me?” she asked, noticing how quickly he discarded his robe.

 

“It is time to let me take care of _you_ ,” he told her, picking up the blue ribbon she had worn yesterday to greet him in the inner courtyard. He tied up her hair, his fingers lingering at the nape of her neck, sending the smallest and most delightful tingles down her spine.

 

“Kiss me, my love,” she murmured, and he obeyed, replacing his wandering fingers with his lips, his tongue darting out to taste her shivering skin.

 

He picked up a bar of soap and soon he was cleaning her up, paying careful attention to her breasts and the sensitive area between her legs, much to Rey’s satisfaction. She gave him leave to touch every inch of her body, reveling in his ministrations and the way he seemed to find new places to touch and give her pleasure.

 

All too soon the water turned tepid and he helped her get out of the tub, wrapping a thick towel around her small frame.

 

Rey sat down on one of the chairs and dried herself, her gaze lingering over her husband’s backside as he walked to the bed and changed the crumpled sheets. Looking at the linens, Rey noticed there were no frightening and enormous signs that she had surrendered her maidenhead to him without misgivings, unless one counted the maids who had seen her in his bed.

 

She had expected a massive pool of blood and nothing short of excruciating pain as a result of their lovemaking and, frowning, she wondered if the stories she heard years ago from the old gossips in the village were merely tall tales meant to frighten off spirited maidens.

 

Everything she heard about lovemaking seemed… contradictory.

 

What had transpired between Ben and her last night had been beautiful, the opposite of the grueling and excruciating experience she had been told to expect.

 

 _Perhaps_ , Rey mused, _I enjoyed it all the more because I was with the man I love_.

 

She wanted him to claim her again, to stroke and knead and love her to completion.

 

Ben dutifully changed the sheets. He folded the old ones and placed them on a chair next to the table where their breakfast had been set, but Rey could barely spare their meal a second glance, her husband’s broad frame far more appetizing than the small feast he’d ordered.

 

Rey hungered for something else now.

 

As soon as Ben finished his domestic duties, Rey dropped her towel to the floor and padded over to him, encircling his waist with her arms. He was strong and wild and firm – the mark of a true Norman warrior – yet, deep down, he was a gentle man with a sensitive soul that belonged to her.

 

 _You’re mine_. Rey pressed her cheek to his back. _My sweet and beautiful giant_.

 

Pleased at the thought, Rey kissed his shoulder blades, hearing his breath hitch with arousal.

 

“I want you,” she whispered in between kisses. “I want you now.”

 

Ben turned around and lifted her again, setting her on the bed. Rey parted her legs for him, bending her knees ever so slightly. He settled in between her thighs and began stroking her, a large finger circling her opening.

 

Teasing. Testing.

 

She whimpered, realizing, to her great misfortune, that she was still too sore to fit him inside her so soon.

 

He shushed her gently, whispering sweet endearments. “I’ll take care of you,” he promised and, true to his word, he bent down between her legs and kissed her where his hand had been just seconds ago.

 

Her hips bucked, finding the new sensation strange, yet unmistakably arousing. He used his hands to steady her hips and kissed her core again, eliciting a small whimper at the back of her throat.

 

“Do you like that?” he asked against her mound, his breath softly brushing over the thatch of curls, and Rey moaned a strangled ‘yes’ in reply.

 

Satisfied with her reply, Ben resumed, this time using his tongue, kissing her almost the way he had kissed her on the lips so many times the day before, lapping at her core as if she were the finest feast. Rey moaned uncontrollably, her frantic movements only steadied by his strong and stable grip.

 

“Don’t stop,” she whimpered. “Please, don’t stop.”

 

She had no idea this was something people did, but she liked it, and any bashfulness she might have felt vanished when she sensed his tongue probe her opening. There was no soreness and no pain when he touched her that way, just sheer pleasure as he kissed and licked her until she felt close to bursting, as he loved her folds with his mouth and swirled his tongue around her sensitive hole.

 

And, indeed, she did burst.

 

Rey came with a loud moan, screaming her husband’s name, tears prickling at her eyes from the sheer strength of her climax. He lapped at her, savoring her essence with his sinful mouth, and only when she subsided did he finally pull away, kissing her thighs, her stomach, and her small breasts, pausing for a fraction of a second before claiming her lips in a searing kiss, letting her taste herself.

 

To Rey’s surprise, she liked how she tasted, and she could surmise from Ben’s deep sighs, and the way he smiled at her after he pulled back for air, that he had enjoyed her as well. A bright smile etched his features, the type of smile that wiped years off his face and made him look like a mischievous boy instead of a hardened warrior bred for battles and sieges.

 

Satisfied with her husband’s lovemaking, Rey kissed the corners of his smile before he pulled back and settled next to her on the mattress, his clever eyes never leaving her face. She instinctively went to lay on top of him, head resting over his broad chest, listening to the steady and comforting rhythm of his heartbeat.

 

“Hold me,” Rey murmured, her fingers tracing the old wound on his left shoulder. “Let’s stay in bed a while longer.”

 

In response, Ben wrapped his strong arms around her, placing the gentlest of kisses on her forehead. He whispered heated endearments, promises filled with love and hope, as a lifetime of bliss stretched ahead and enveloped them in a warm and soothing embrace.

 

FIN

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And... it is done. I am so grateful to everyone who has read this story. The kudos, messages, and comments were such great encouragement when editing this story and planning future fanfics. ;) Thank you so much for your kind words!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this final chapter of "To Have and to Hold" and the story as a whole. I look forward to hearing your thoughts. :D

**Author's Note:**

> I am trash for historical romance (and Reylo), so I couldn't resist setting this story in the months following the Norman Conquest, where arranged marriages between Norman men and Anglo-Saxon heiresses were practiced to solidify the new regime. This change also resulted in the loss of many rights that women had during the Anglo Saxon period, as the Normans introduced a military society that relegated woman to the margins. Naturally, this challenging historical setting allowed me to work in some of my favorite tropes, indulge in my interest in history, and write about Reylo at the same time. 
> 
> As this fanfic ended up being longer than expected (Who knew you needed to insert some world-building before getting to the smut?), I have split the story into five chapters, the rest of which are in the final editing stages. So you're definitely getting a nice ending haha! 
> 
> This is the first time I've ever shared my writing, so I hope you enjoyed this first chapter. You can find me on [ Tumblr ](http://bunilicious.tumblr.com) @bunilicious if you want to chat. :)


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